Archive for the ‘Poker News’ Category

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Most of you have probably heard of the Mediarex Global Poker Index (GPI) that ranks current poker players by their composite scores in qualifying tournaments over the previous 36-month period. It also names the year’s Player of the Year (POY).

But did you know that there is also a Female GPI as well as POY separate from the overall GPI (which includes ALL qualified current players)?

As of November 19th, the female poker star leading the pack is Canadian Kristen Bicknell with 3,054.13 points, followed by Maria Lampropulos, Maria Ho, Loni Harwood and Wendy Freedman. Bicknell has two WSOP bracelets to her credit and was last year’s POY, so she appears to be heading for back-to-back GPI POY titles, a significant accomplishment.

Not only that, but Bicknell’s partner Alex Foxen, is currently sitting on top of the overall 2018 POY race. Talk about a poker “power couple” !

2018 Ladies GPI Player of the Year Standings

Rank

Player

2018 GPI POY Score

1st

Kristen Bicknell

3,054.13

2nd

Maria Lampropulos

2,412.18

3rd

Maria Ho

2,161.80

4th

Loni Harwood

2,136.44

5th

Wendy Freedman

1,845.79

6th

KellyMinkin

1,802.34

7th

Anna Antimony

1,770.88

8th

Hui“Kitty”Chen-Kuo

1,735.91

9th

Gao Wenling

1,693.75

10th

Maria Konnikova

1,673.26

You can follow the GPI Ladies races on the official GPI website. Also feel free to follow the GPI on Twitter and its Facebook page. After you check it all out and it makes you want to participate, you need to practice. Just sit down to play at any of your favorite poker tables and tune up your poker skills.

We been asked many time who we thought were the best WSOP poker players for a particular year. There are way too many players we have followed who are serious contenders to make our personal list. Nevertheless, we thought you would appreciate learning who has in fact made it to the top of the hill to be considered the best of the best WSOP Players over the last five years.

So here are the last six Players of the Year :

2013 — Daniel Negreanu roared mightily that year, winning two bracelets, making four final tables and cashing 10 times. (Negreanu also was POY in 2004.)

2014 — George Danzer outran a lot of players to earn three bracelets, hitting five final tables and cashing 10 times.

2015 — Mike Gorodinsky made it through even though he only grabbed one bracelet for the year, making three final tables and cashing out eight times.

2016 — Jason Mercier won two bracelets, playing strong enough to reach four final tables and cashing a whopping 11 times.

2017 — Chris Ferguson who has been around seemingly forever picked up just one bracelet, making four final tables and cashing an outstanding 23 times.

And that brings us to 2018 and Shaun Deeb. We have been watching Deeb for several years now, and have always appreciated his slo-roll playing style. This year he finally picked up what many consider to be the most coveted award in the world of poker. He also took with him two bracelets, cashing an outstanding 16 times, and banking $2.5 million this year, the most ever for the Player of the Year.

I used to write extensively (as in 30 blogs) about the Global Poker League (GPL). It was something new and exciting, and watching its Inaugural (and only) Season is what turned me into a poker fan. I often praised the vision of the GPL’s innovative founder, Alex Dreyfus, who came up with the whole poker “team” concept, with team managers and a “Draft” just like in the big leagues. I bought into what I considered my poker “home” team: the LA Sunset, and rooted for them with almost as much passion as I had once felt for the NY Yankees. For a solid nine months, poker had been “sportified” and I was a self-proclaimed fan-girl.

I checked back in my archives and realized that the last time I wrote about the GPL was in December of 2017, almost a year ago. In it, I was speculating about what had happened to the promised and much anticipated Season Two. I still don’t know any more than I did back then and trust me – I have Googled it to death. For a brief moment, I thought I had struck gold this time when I clicked on “Global Poker League Second Season Waits While Expansion Occurs in China, Other Areas” but it turned out to be an article in Poker News Daily, written by Earl Burton on March 19th, 2017. I had covered the same information in my last blog. In another March 2017 post from Americas Cardroom, author Bob Garcia wrote a blog on the same topic, and ended with the statement: Fans of the season one show are reportedly expecting a date for the series to return.

Yes, Bob! You were right!! I’m not sure now whether or not your original intention was to be facetious, but in retrospect it sounds more and more likely that the joke is on us –the GPL’s once-devoted and highly disappointed fans. I, for one, feel kind of foolish for devoting so much time and energy trying to win over fans to the Global Poker League; I guess I never expected it to be a one-hit wonder. Oh well, I’m on my way to put down my buy-in, get some poker chips and hit the tables.